Born to two Vietnamese refugees in San Jose, CA, I was at the crossroads of many intersecting struggles. Thankfully I was exposed to tech at the young age of 4, as my dad worked for HP back in the day. That was when Web 1.0 was in full swing and most of the people on there were pretty decent. This really helped me find communities and forums that gave me access to resources I otherwise would’ve never had.

At the same time I was giggling at putting clothes on a virtual doll at barbie.com with my best friend, I drew. A lot. I created zines by crudely stapling paper together and filled them with sprawling impressions. I spent my teen years in fandom communities and artist hubs like DeviantArt and pixiv.

I moved to Irvine, CA for college where I initially double-majored in chemistry and music performance for the horn. Seeking a life where I can freely pursue my artistic interests without existential threat, I switched to computer science with a specialization in artificial systems, recalling the times I made Neopets pages and stole code from other programmers as a bratty 10 year old.

Like many others in the industry–some of which ended up quitting or becoming part of the struggle to reform and support the industry–, I was thrown into the harsh realities of tech and experienced wave after wave of adversity. These experiences galvanized my determination to improve the industry not just for me, but for many others. I go more into my experience here.

I moved to San Francisco, CA and Seattle, WA for work at some points. I eventually attempted living in three cities at once with the help of my network, which I did for a year. Then I touched down in the Los Angeles metro area for a bit before taking off for New York, NY where I reside now.

Throughout my childhood I experienced third-culture struggles as a Vietnamese-American raised in an enclave, both usual and unusual forms of child abuse, and witnessed the unfolding of a medium-scale Ponzi scheme from the inside. Quite unfortunately, part of my life has been to disentangle the karmic implications of having family rooted in criminal activity.

I have also experienced a staggering amount of sexual abuse and assault, which led me to my experiences being in the sex industry and subsequent sex trade/sexploitation abolitionism. You can read more about my experience and work here.